Question

Read the excerpt from “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry.”

For me, reading has always been a path toward liberation and fulfillment. To learn to read is to start down the road of liberation, a road which should be accessible to everyone. No one has the right to keep you from reading, and yet that is what is happening in many areas in this country today. There are those who think they know best what we should read. These censors are at work in all areas of our daily lives.

Which best describes the rhetoric used in this excerpt to increase the reader’s awareness of censorship?
factual evidence is used to appeal to the reader’s sense of logic
a strong opinion is presented to appeal to the reader’s sense of justice
an emotional anecdote is related to appeal to the reader’s sympathy
the author’s love of reading is referenced to appeal to his character

Answer 1

B. a strong opinion is presented to appeal to the reader’s sense of justice

Step-by-step explanation:

Let's look through the answer choices and try to eliminate some:

A: "factual evidence is used to appeal to the reader’s sense of logic"

There aren't really any specific pieces of factual evidence like statistics or data; instead, the excerpt is more of a prose kind of writing. Eliminate A.

B: "a strong opinion is presented to appeal to the reader’s sense of justice"

Yes, we can see that this author is quite adamant about no censorship on books. And, this is appealing to the reader's sense of justice because the author is giving reasons about the importance of books and reading. So B is correct.

C: "an emotional anecdote is related to appeal to the reader’s sympathy"

There really is no anecdote, or personal storey, here. So C is wrong.

D: "the author’s love of reading is referenced to appeal to his character"

It's true that the author's love of reading is referenced, but the purpose isn't to make readers like him/her. It is to persuade the reader to accept his/her opinion that censorship on books isn't right. Eliminate D.

Answer 2

a strong opinion is presented to appeal to the reader's sense of justice

Step-by-step explanation:

The word rhetoric refers to the act of persuading or convincing someone about a specific idea during writing or speeches by showing one's ideas are valid and true. For doing this, there are multiple techniques that can be used and include using facts or statistics; appeal to the logic of the reader; taking advantage of the emotions of the reader; telling a personal anecdote or story and using the values of the reader.

In the case presented, the author is trying to show to the readers the way reading is the path towards liberation and because of this it should not be limited or censored by someone. For doing this, the author mainly presents a strong opinion and uses expressions such as "No one has the right to keep you from reading" or "here are those who think they know best what we should read" to show the reader how unfair it is that someone wants to decide what they should read. This means the author of this excerpt uses the perception of the reader about fairness and justice to convince the reader the author proposal about censorship is valid. Thus, the rhetoric used in the excerpt to increase the reader's awareness of censorship is "a strong opinion is presented to appeal to the reader’s sense of justice".